Real-time customer feedback

• US 9,386,144 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2012
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Gartner, Jeffrey G., Peacock, Nathan L., Saunders, Marc, Lidstone, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S
• Application Number:
  US13/568,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20140044250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.09
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/401 Performance feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/00 Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

Described are embodiments for providing real time feedback during communication between a customer and a contact center agent to allow a bad customer experience to be mitigated. Embodiments include a system that can identify and mitigate issues that may arise during the communication between the customer and the customer agent including a customer agent'"'"'s performance, escalation to a supervisor, materials shared with the customer, wait time experience and/or other aspects of the communication. The feedback is provided while the customer and agent are still communicating. The feedback is linked to the specific session and agent. If an issue is identified, steps are taken to mitigate the issue.

Claims

1. A method for managing voice communications in a contact center, comprising:

establishing, by at least one processor, an electronic voice communication session between a human agent at a first communication device and a customer at a second communication device; and

during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer;

receiving, by the at least one processor, an indication of customer feedback regarding the electronic voice communication session, wherein the indication of customer feedback is based on analyzing the electronic voice communication session for one or more keywords to detect speech patterns of the customer that comprise the customer repeating themselves; and

initiating, by the at least one processor, an action during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer, wherein the action is one of recording the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer at a time when the customer repeated themselves or parsing the electronic voice communication session at the time of the customer repeated themselves; and

in response to initiating the action, one of playing back, by the at least one processor, the recorded electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves or marking with an indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time when the customer repeated themselves.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of customer feedback further comprises receiving feedback from one or more of an instant message (IM), an email, a short message service (SMS) message, a multimedia message service (MMS) message, a feedback webpage, dual-tone multi-frequency signaling key codes, a social network, and a chat link.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the at least one processor, additional customer feedback in response to sending a request to the customer for the customer feedback.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the at least one processor, a menu to the customer for receiving the customer feedback.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before initiating the action, the at least one processor determining, based on the customer feedback and predetermined rules, the action to be initiated.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identity of the customer is used in determining the action to be initiated.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises one of:

providing the customer feedback to the human agent;

providing the customer feedback to a third party;

including the third party in the electronic voice communication session; and

prompting the customer for additional feedback.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of customer feedback provided during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer results in the human agent changing a script to provide different information to the customer.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the at least one processor, a time that the indication of customer feedback was provided during the electronic voice communication session; and

in response to the determined time, modifying, by the at least one processor, a portion of a script that the human agent was reading at the determined time.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

recording, by the at least one processor, a plurality of electronic communication sessions between a plurality of customers and a plurality of human agents;

receiving, by the at least one processor, a plurality of indications of customer feedback regarding the plurality of electronic communication sessions;

identifying, by the at least one processor, in the plurality of electronic communication sessions, a keyword that was spoken at a time when at least two of the plurality of indications of customer feedback were received; and

identifying, by the at least one processor, a trend based on the identified keyword.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the at least one processor, customer feedback via dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones and wherein the DTMF tones are filtered so that the human agent does not hear the DTMF tones.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the action performed based on the customer feedback in the electronic voice communication session further comprises directing, by the at least one processor, the customer to an online web chat or web cast that is currently active or will be active in the future.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of customer feedback is that the customer perceives that the human agent lacks expertise and wherein the action further comprises conferencing, by the at least one processor, an expert onto the electronic voice communication session.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is recording the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer and wherein the one of playing back the electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves or marking with the indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time when the customer repeated themselves is playing back the electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is parsing the electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves and wherein the one of playing back the electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves or marking with the indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time when the customer repeated themselves is marking with the indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time when the customer repeated themselves.

8. A communication system, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

a processor;

an application stored in the computer readable medium and running on the processor, wherein the application;

establishes an electronic voice communication session between a human agent at a first communication device and a customer at a second communication device; and

during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer;

receives an indication of customer feedback regarding the electronic voice communication session, wherein the indication of customer feedback is based on analyzing the electronic voice communication session for one or more keywords to detect speech patterns of the customer that comprise the customer repeating themselves; and

a recorder that in response to determining that an action should be performed based on the customer repeating themselves, one of records the electronic voice communication session between when the customer repeated themselves or parses the electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves; and

one of plays back the recorded electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves or marks with an indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the application further:

identifies the customer using stored customer information, wherein the action is determined based in part by the stored customer information.

10. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the application further:

records a time during the electronic voice communication session at which the customer feedback was received.

11. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored onto the computer readable medium which, when executed by one or more processors of a computer, causes the computer to perform a method of receiving customer feedback, the method comprising:

establishing an electronic voice communication session between a human agent at a first communication device and a customer at a second communication device;

during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer;

receiving an indication of customer feedback regarding the electronic voice communication session, wherein the indication of customer feedback is based on analyzing the electronic voice communication session for one or more keywords to detect speech patterns of the customer that comprise the customer repeating themselves; and

initiating a mitigation action during the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer, wherein the mitigation action is one of recording the electronic voice communication session between the human agent and the customer at a time when the customer repeated themselves or parsing the electronic voice communication session between at the time the customer repeated themselves; and

one of playing back the recorded electronic voice communication at the time the customer repeated themselves or marking with an indicator the parsed electronic voice communication session at the time the customer repeated themselves.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying the customer using stored customer information, wherein the mitigation step is determined based in part on the stored customer information.